Sentient
by Inferna Firesword
Summary: Oneshot series around the Sentients. #4: They had no armies, no infantry, no tangible weapons – yet they were generals in their own private war.
1. Kyburi

I started writing this as series of oneshots of the Red Sentients on Krytus's team, all interlocking and derived from the events of _Axis of Evil – Part 2_, _Ascent of the Red Sentients – Part 1_ _and 2_. Currently, that series is in doubt, since I have a lot on my plate right now, but since Kyburi is my favorite new villain, I decided to finish the shot on her and post it as a stand-alone story for now.

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Hot Wheels: Battle Force 5, pure and simple. The instances relating to KrytusxKyburi is from my own mind, since I saw hints of it in AotRS – Part 2.

Kyburi

The gear-like locking mechanism on her prison seemed to be stuck. Even in the thralls of forced hibernation, the female could feel the rough rocking of her chamber as an unknown force tore at it, desperate to crack the seal. How she was able to tell was unknown – perhaps a waft of non-recycled air, leaking in through the tiniest of cracks, was responsible for her hazy thoughts and fragmented dreams to start forming as solid wholes again.

Her senses began to awaken after who knew how many years of slumber, her disused systems regaining some of their old sharpness. Her eyes perceived a figure – blurred by the frosted glass-material, but undoubtedly Red – yanking away at the front of her chamber, trying to fully crack the seal. As her audio receptors went online again, a voice managed to traverse the barriers and enter her mind; the words it carried excited her as much as the voice itself did.

"You're almost free, Kyburi."

With a final, monumental pull on the wheel, the seal finally gave. Warmer air rushed in, causing the cold, moisture-filled atmosphere of the cyrostasis chamber to condense into steam and obscure what her liberators could see. The door slid back, allowing the female Red Sentient a somewhat-free view of those standing outside. Through the vapor, two Red Sentients waited for her.

The thinner of the pair, head domed as always, was in an animalistic crouch, like he expected her to leap out and attack (which, considering her bad temper, probably wasn't a bad idea). His yellow eyes shifted like a cornered prey animal, all parts of him tensed to jump back if she attacked. The thought amused her, but she was far too pleased by the concept of freedom to lash out at her ally – she said _ally _because amongst their elite group, she had only one true friend, and he was the other member of the duo.

Krytus was standing closer to her former prison than Kytran was; obviously he had been the one to crack it open. The stockier male had much more relaxed body language than Kytran, indicating no fear, but he watched quietly, waiting for her to rejoin them in the fold.

_Better not keep the boys waiting._

Smirking, Kyburi stepped out of the coffin-like prison with one high-heeled foot, relishing her freedom to move. As she emerged dramatically from the steam, she laughed in her throaty voice, which was slightly rusty from disuse. "I'm back!" she cried in the midst of her laughter, sounding more than a little unhinged as she privately celebrated her return to the Multiverse's events.

Kytran did not ease out of his ready position even after it became apparent she had not changed in her imprisonment. Krytus, however, seemed more than pleased by her revival – _and with good reason, _she thought to herself, a little warmth blooming in her core as she looked at him, the glorious young leader of their rebellion, fighting against the constricting treaty that shackled the Red Sentients, stunting their civilization's growth and making them weak.

Before their capture, she would have followed him to the ends of the Multiverse, because she knew he was right. She still would.

"You look as lethal as ever, Kyburi," Krytus said in his curiously low, soft voice. The words were a compliment, a sort of in-joke amongst their unit of elite rebels, but at the moment she realized more important things that doing her half of the crack. Krytus' words had reminded Kyburi that she _had _been locked up in a stasis chamber for who knew how long, and she had no idea she had last drained electricity from some hapless Sark. The power core that stored her stolen energy was bone-dry, as was her main core; in the regards of the Sentient races, she was famished, even though her shell gave off the appearance of a young, healthy, well-fed, black-and-red human woman.

"I'm starved," she snapped, good humor gone in one of her mercurial mood swings. Something moved in the corner of her eye – a Red Sark, standing closer than was safe. One of her eyes shifted to catch Krytus' again; when he gave no indication of protest, she reacted.

As quick as a striking snake, her claw-like fingers grabbed the "neck" of the Zurk, which cried out in its strange binary tongue as her nails dug deep into wires. Her powers then took hold, causing waves of electricity to come pouring out of the robot and into herself; she gritted her teeth in hungry pleasure as her cores were filled almost to maximum.

_Whoever caught me was smart – having me retain my drained power in cryostasis is a bad idea, since it could cause me to awaken. Not like their caution helped much, in the end._

The Zurk finally gave, its single eye turning black as the last volt was sucked out of its body. Offhandedly, her interest lost the moment it was lifeless, Kyburi flung it directly at a cliff side. Even as it crashed loudly into the rock this Battlezone was made up of, she whirled on her heels and leapt into the air, calling on her newly-restored power to form her vehicle around her.

Red energy surged around her, converting into metal and wires in a way that would dumbfound lesser scientists, twisting into shapes around her shell. The Ventikus took shape around her, the six limbs and skeletal wheels gripping the rocks around her, slamming down just before the edgy scout and unmoved Krytus.

Seated behind the controls of her infamous "spider-car," Kyburi's good mood returned right away, and she cackled once again. "I always get a _charge _out of that!" she quipped, her thin face drawn into laugh lines as she made one of the most obvious puns in the history in the Multiverse.

Before she could continue, though, her sensors alerted her of movements going on in the Battlezone; movements she was not alone in detecting. Krytus and Kytran whipped their heads around towards their origin, and three sets of eyes watched as a pair of Red Sark engaged five unfamiliar vehicles – unfamiliar to Kyburi, at least. Krytus and Kytran seemed to recognize them, as both males snarled in irritation; Kytran's was like a wolf's, while Krytus' voice had altered, the same way it always did when he was mad, or something wasn't going as he planned.

"Kytran, Kyburi," he ordered, his voice becoming that of the leader she had followed so gladly in her time awake. "Slow them down."

Without hesitation, the slimmer male leapt towards the intruders, his uni-wheeled vehicle forming around him as he charged. Thrilling at the thought of the first combat since she had been cast into sleep, the female Red Sentient was hot behind him. She spared one metaphorical glance back; her rear scanners informed her that Krytus had formed his more conventional ride and was speeding off deeper into the canyons.

_Off to go wake the others, no doubt. They wouldn't want to miss this stomping match; Kyrosis, the old flamebrain, would give us hell if we woke him after we sent these interlopers to oblivion._

Well, no matter. Kyrosis would grouse about it, but at heart he would be glad to just be awake. And before the fire-driver could spoil her fun, she would make sure the Multiverse remembered her as the best warrior.

Lips drawn in a diabolical smile, Kyburi fed more power to the Ventikus, leaping forward to face the organics ahead and to make the Multiverse quake once again.

**XxX**

Like? Don't like? Please R&R!

-Inferna


	2. Slave

Okay, so my original project has evolved into a one-shot series centering around the Red Sentient 5 and episodes not part of their debuts. I can work with it – it gives me plenty of opportunities to write stories about Kyburi and exploit her possible romantic ties with Krytus. And any excuse that lets me do that is awesome. =D

**Note: **This centers on the episode _Found! … And Lost_, which is the eighth episode of Season 2. I'll do my best to explain the circumstances of the episode in the shot itself; lemme know if I need to expand this note into a quick summary.

**Disclaimer: **I do not attempt to persuade you that I own any of the characters, settings (with the exception of Mados), or circumstances of this story; they belong to the Hot Wheels franchise and Nerd Corps. (I may have embellished some of the events, though.)

Slave

The roar came suddenly and loudly, like a trumpet blast. "Bring me my dinner, servant!"

Whimpering a bit in his throat – partly out of fear towards the one barking the order, and partly because the thing he was dragging was absolutely disgusting – the tall, grey-colored Diad staggered into the circular room. It was mostly empty, save for a throne plopped in the center and flanked by a pair of Red Zurk, holding a pair of crystal standards. Carved from goldstone, the chair was occupied by a thin-faced Red Sentient, reclining in a manner Humans would find suggestive. Her sulfurous eyes glared at the smaller creature before her; she had seized him from a far-flung Battlezone as he carried out his Master's dying wish, and had brought him to this fortress to be her prisoner and slave.

"Coming, Mistress Kyburi," he simpered in his thin, reedy voice, prepared to curry favor from her any way possible. The green, fat worm-like thing he was dragging squirmed in his silicone grip, oozing a mucus-like slime all over his fingers, and he wondered – not for the first time – why this Red wanted this creature for a power source.

On his second thought, though, he decided he really didn't want to know. His old Master, the Blue Sentient, had been a far cry from this demanding female, but if he wanted to keep himself – and his chances of returning to the Battlezone – intact, he needed to soothe Kyburi and carry out her wishes. Maybe, if he did a good-enough job, she would delay the inevitable brain-picking that would result from his capture just long enough to find a refuge.

"I … I hope you don't mind it uncooked," he said hopefully, digging his fingers into the yielding flesh of the Vergrinch as she tapped her fingernails impatiently. The green worm squirmed most unpleasantly in his hold, and he fought to keep from losing it.

"I never devour the life force of anything cooked." Kyburi's voice had become softer; while the Zurk were not the smartest beings in the Multiverse, the hive mind of the Sark contained memories of other unfortunate Zurk that had been present when Kyburi's voice had wound up that way, and they all stressed that she was at her most dangerous when her tones had dropped in volume. Both present made a point of stepping away.

Her awful eyes narrowed. "Or _green!_" she finished in a snarl, pulling herself into a more conventional sitting position and leaning forward. "I wanted a _red _Vergrinch!"

Diad Quardian felt his soul plummet. He had known Kyburi had specifically ordered for a red worm, but …

"Ah, yes, about that," he stammered, trying to control the damage done, "the red one seemed even less interested in following me to the kitchen …"

As if to illustrate his point, the Vergrinch managed to yank out of his grip, but before Quardian could pounce on it again, it rammed into him, knocking the Diad onto his face as it made a successful bid for freedom. Kyburi did not order him after it, but she wasn't happy either.

"Fool!" The two cautious Zurk were cut down by her claw-like fingernails as she rose up and out of her seat, glaring daggers at her slave. "Bring me my proper sustenance, or I'll make a meal out of you!"

Quardian's terror levels shot up several notches, and he impulsively cried "No!" before he realized his mistake and hastened to amend it. "I mean, yes, Mistress!"

He scurried out of the room, afraid of making another slip of the tongue that might result in his destruction – or worse, his interrogation. Sighing as she entered another mercurial mood swing, Kyburi turned away from the exit, kicking part of the destroyed Zurk aside with one high-heeled foot.

"But not before I discover why that lowlife was living in that desolate Zone," she finished softly, illustrating her real reasons for keeping the Diad. While it felt good to have something to boss around that wasn't as passive as the Zurk – and had the satisfying emotion of fear – she wasn't lazy enough to be a finger-snapping Sentient. She could easily get her own meals; once she tired of his fear-fueled flattery, she would embark on some skullduggery.

**XxX**

The rumors came through the Red Zurk mainframe, carried by the Sark that had been assigned to Kyburi's holding. Normally Krytus would take anything they reported with a pinch of salt – he had gained a distrust of robots after Zemerik's betrayal – but this particular piece of info was so likely to happen that he was driving the Synfurious towards her Mados stronghold.

After the brief scare they'd had over Kytran's Respawn Chamber being located and nearly destroyed by Sage's Humans, the Red Sentient 5 had taken responsibility over the protection of their own Chambers – something none of them took lightly; they were, after all, the keys to their immortality. Kyrosys had armed the Zone his was located in with so many automatic weapons that all life in it had effectively been destroyed, while simplistic Krylox had stuck his in the center of an erupting volcano. Krytus himself … well, he kept the details to himself, but he was confident that even Sage and her telepathic link to him wouldn't help her ferret it out.

Kyburi had been much nastier: she had constructed clever fakes, complete with her Antimatter signature, and scattered them in Battlezones close enough to mask the true Chamber, but far enough to discourage anyone from looking around in neighboring Zones. If the identification probes did not pick up another Red in its scan radius, it would explode, sending a signal to Kyburi and probably killing the intruder. He had known she had been summoned away on such a call, but other than giving the Humans a scare, it had been a failure.

Krytus did not tolerate failure, in his companions or himself, but for every rule there was an exception. Kyburi was that exception – always had been and most likely always would be. Besides, even though she had not killed the Humans or found Earth's coordinates, they would be much less brazen the next time they tried to find a Respawn Chamber.

And, it was hinted by the Zurk, the tough-as-nails female had not come back empty-handed. She had returned with a Diad, or at least with a piece of Sentient society. In either case, she was said to have had claimed a trophy, and he was curious enough to investigate.

He was quiet as he drove the Synfurious through the huge hallways of her stronghold. While Kyburi was an excellent First Lieutenant, she guarded her secrets jealously, and he didn't want to give her time to hide it, in case she thought he was there to take it.

After all, she had captured it, but as the leader, he held the right to claim it for the team in general – assuming _it _existed. Skulking in the dark hallway, just outside her "throne room," Krytus watched his companion lounge in that huge chair she loved. A grey figure was hovering by her right arm, and he knew what was going on. A female Red Sentient's beauty was often judged by the length and sharpness of her fingernails, and Kyburi was no slouch in that regard – if anything, she had become more obsessed with them after she had gained a chance to do something with them other than show off.

Waving aside the figure – who cringed away, still holding the enormous metal file – his lieutenant rose up from her feet with her natural grace, examining her long, slender fingers with a critical eye. She took a few steps in his direction (Krytus was prepared to go into reverse if she had seen him and had decided to use _him_ for target practice, unlikely as it seemed), but then whirled on her Zurk, reducing them to scrap with a pair of swipes.

To a Human, this would have been impressive – and a bit nerve-wracking – but it did not satisfy Kyburi's stringent demands for herself. Whirling on her high heels, she pointed an index finger imperiously at the cowering creature. "Sharper!" she barked.

Krytus knew how this would end if he allowed it – Kyburi had been an abusive mistress to the Diads that had once served her – and he gunned the engines dramatically, rolling into full view before he willed it away, landing easily on his feet. The ones still standing whirled to see him, the female's eyes narrowing as she glared at him; out of her line of sight, the creature hid behind the throne. The leader of the Red Sentient 5 noticed the development, but only a moment passed before he spoke.

"So, Kyburi," he said in a manner that seemed businesslike on the surface, but hinted towards a threat, "your ambush of the Humans failed. Yet I hear you claimed a prize."

The woman's irritation vanished on the spot; it was no secret that Kyburi sprang at any opportunity to impress him. Smirking in a manner that showcased her pearly fangs, she replied in a voice that couldn't be any different than the snarl she had directed at her creature – softer, for one thing, and delivered in a manner that seemed calculated to sweeten the temper of any male within earshot. "Mmm, and I think you'll be pleased, Krytus."

She looked around, but when she realized in turn that her prize was trembling behind her chair, she scowled again. "Show yourself, Diad!"

"Yes, my Mistress," he muttered, rising and trudging to her side, standing in the space made by Kyburi and Krytus' distance from each other (granted, it wasn't a very great distance). He was still holding the nail file in his hands, and Krytus noted he was trying not to look him in the eyes. In terms of height, he was tall enough to have his eyes be level with Kyrosys' core, assuming the Artillery Officer had been around to perform a measurement. The Leader felt a stirring in the back of his brain, like he was unconsciously trying to remember something, but he was forced to put it aside as his lieutenant spoke again. There were no seductive hints in her voice this time – it was strictly business as usual now.

"I captured him in a desolate Zone as I was pursuing the Humans. A lone Diad, in a barren corner of the Multiverse, seemed … suspicious."

Once again, the male Sentient examined the creature that was trembling before them. He was sure that he knew this … thing, but for the life of him, he couldn't remember where.

"You …" he said softly, hoping that speaking out loud it would unravel some of his thoughts. "You look familiar …"

And just like that, he stumbled upon the answer, which – in hindsight – seemed so obvious that he was amazed he hadn't realized it sooner. "Of course!" he cried, grabbing the Diad's face in his hand. Kyburi made as if to protest, but he ignored her. "You were the Diad servant of my sister's ally, Boralis!" he said triumphantly.

The Diad's eyes widened as Kyburi hissed in surprise, and he began stammering a reply; it took a moment or two before he could articulate "You must be mistaken," but by then Krytus was absolutely sure of it. He flung Quardian aside with a snarl of "Silence!" but if the Diad expected his new mistress to come to his defense, he was sadly mistaken.

Were the circumstances different – if it weren't that Krytus and Kyburi had both recognized the name of a former enemy – the Sentient equivalent of a custody battle might have taken place, allowing him to escape outside into Mados. Unfortunately, this wasn't his lucky day.

"Boralis was a clever foe … for a Blue," Krytus growled at the Diad, Kyburi grinning maliciously over his shoulder. "He might have sent you there for a reason." Turning his attention from their captive to the captor, he quickly asked the question that could spare them a lot of trouble: "Where was this desolate Zone?"

Kyburi's eyes narrowed, her mood swinging back again. "I had no time to fix coordinates. It was all I could do to escape." She said it in a haughty manner, tossing her head like she offended that he would even _dare _to accuse her of doing such a thing.

Krytus fought the urge to chew her out about that neglect and won, mostly because they had a Plan B available. Marching over to where Quardian lay, he seized his head and forced the Diad to look into his yellow eyes.

"Then this miserable creature will tell us," he proclaimed, "and reveal the nature of his true mission … one way, or another."

Kyburi cackled in dark glee, no longer caring if she would have a servant. Quardian trembled in Krytus' grip, praying for the help he knew wouldn't come, since the only others that knew of his existence were sealed up, thanks to his own work.

_Where are you?_

**XxX**

Likey? No likey?

-Inferna


	3. Silence

… and now my Red Sentient 5 one-shot collection has expanded into a one-shot collection about the Sentients in general. Oh well. =P

**Note: **This takes place in the very first episode, _Starting Line_, from the perspective of Sage. The shot will explain the rest.

**Disclaimer: **I don't own the Battle Force 5 franchise; I merely screw it up for my own twisted ideals.

Silence

Sage liked to think herself as a loner, but she knew that was a lie. While she did enjoy her solitude, it was something she had hardly ever received in the past, even though her faulty memory made it difficult to remember various events. While she seemed like she was alone now, in truth she was not, as the Human that had brought her to relative safety wasn't far away.

The Blue Sentient was hovering in the center of her newly-created Hub, built by the nanotechnology she possessed in a hollowed-out space beneath Vert Wheeler's building. Since so much time had passed since she had been able to accomplish something so large, she looked around at her surroundings with pardonable pride.

Granted, it still wasn't complete, as three bursts were needed to build: the first to hollow out the proper space, the second for the main functions, and the third for secondary functions. Doing the bursts of energy without a Mobius Command Center handy was a risky business, but when Sage made a decision, she stuck with it. Vert Wheeler would need this place as much as she did, she knew it. If she wanted to stay alive and hidden on this planet – and if Vert wanted to protect his homeworld – they would need the space to shelter other warriors; specifically the ones mentioned in the Prophecy of Five.

Sage considered herself a being of science, but she was also a being of logic, and she knew Sentient prophecies were rarely wrong. While the deleted parts of her memory dealt with those areas, intuition told her that the Prophecy of Five was coming true. Vert Wheeler was just part of the catalyst that would cause it to be fulfilled.

Taking a short pause to prepare for the last nanotech blast, Sage pulled up a group of her triangular screens, connecting her systems to what Humans called the Internet. In the simplest terms, Sentients of any color were a race of living, thinking computers, and their very nature made them masters of machines – and master hackers. Accessing the World Wide Web was Vandal's play to her.

Her screens were only needed in a superficial sense; her eyes stared blankly at the wall as she filtered various nuisances like "viruses" and "malware" out of her connection. It didn't take long for her to find a search engine that would suit her purposes, and she concentrated, trying to remember part of the Prophecy of 5 and its description of the 5. Vert was "the one with fire in his spirit," she was sure of it, but she wouldn't help with the others.

_The two that are one …_

That would be a good place to start – that was the only part she could remember – but there was the simple hitch that it could mean any number of things. Prophecies were notoriously open-ended, allowing them to be interpreted and fulfilled in any number of ways, which why Sage disliked using them.

It was better to just go with logic now. Sage preformed the mental equivalent of slouching backwards in her seat, thinking. Vert would be a good field leader, but what skills would he need to compliment his own?

_The Sark are purely robots – easy prey for a skilled hacker or computer programmer. The Vandals lack even rudimentary mathematical skills._

Those simple enemy flaws led the Sentient to Spinner and Sherman Cortez, a pair of twin brothers currently residing in San Diego, California. Ignoring her twinges of unease (mostly stemming from her experiences with Krytus), she found that the 17-year-old brothers were considered prodigies in their respective fields: younger Sherman had taken college-level math classes and still wasn't sufficiently challenged, while Spinner was in high demand with various computer and game designers. A slight blip informed Sage that the older sibling had gotten in trouble with the law before – apparently, the 'Federal Bureau of Investigation' didn't appreciate it when a teenager hacked their databanks for fun.

Amused, Sage added the brothers to a list and continued on with her search. _A survivalist would be good … someone who doesn't need technology to find someone, and isn't hindered by the terrain._

"Tracker, All-Terrain, Resilient" was plugged in, and her top result gave her an overview of Agura Ibadlen, a dark-skinned 18-year-old ATV racer whose family had immigrated from the continent of Africa when she had been about three years old. Scrolling down, Sage learned that Agura had learned traditional tracking methods from her grandfather, and that her maternal great-grandmother had been a tribal princess. Examining the photograph of her, showing a proud, confident young woman, Sage knew that part of her bloodline still survived.

Adding Agura alongside the Cortez brothers, the Blue Sentient didn't take long to find someone that could handle intense situations, as well as add a professional's touch when it came to close-quarters combat. Zoom Takazumi was the youngest group member so far, at 16 years old, but Sage was confident that his relative youth would only be a minor detail when it came to the sum of his parts … judging solely from his standings from many martial-arts competitions , he would be as valuable as the others.

Instinct told the female she just needed one more person to round out the group. Part of her remembered Krytus' gang and how some of their traits echoed in those of these Humans … Agura's affection for ATVs reminded her of Kyburi's Venikus, and the Saber's design was reminiscent of her twin's own wicked blades …

She shook her head, forcing herself to ignore those bad memories. Regardless, maybe it would do to have this group emulate her brother's Force. Vert had already been marked as the Leader, and Agura had all the makings of a Hunter. Zoom's love for life on the edge and need for speed pointed him towards the Scout's role; the Cortezes could act as the Technical/Tactical Support.

That just left the Artillery Officer's role unfilled. Krytus' pick had been Kyrosys, and while the Red and his fire wheels had been both intimidating and effective, Sage felt they needed something a bit more controlled for this group.

In any case, they would need good aim. Inputting "Sharpshooter" into the search engine, her new results – unlike the previous ones – did not suit her. Most of them were older than 19-year-old Vert and were active in various military organizations around the world. While she did not doubt their prowess and discipline, she preferred to keep anyone immediately associated with the government away from this place.

Starting to get annoyed, and wondering if she should set this aside and complete the Hub, Sage's virtual gaze finally fell upon a promising entry. _Stanford Issac Rhodes IV, _it read, detailing that the orange-haired 18-year-old was a prince in the British royal family, currently 188th in line for the throne and working as a disk jockey in the city of London. His affinity for sound, his record as an excellent shot, his youth, and relative unimportance to political entities made him her best Artillery candidate – yet Sage hesitated.

It was true that his low status on the royalty totem pole meant that it was unlikely that he would be in any position to betray her existence to a Human government, but he was still royalty. Agura's family hadn't had political power for several generations now, and there were few that knew of those connections anyway. Stanford, however, had known of his heritage since birth, and there was no room on a team like this for that kind of potential arrogance.

What other choice did she have, though, save those older warriors? Sometimes you couldn't predict the reaction of elements when they were mixed together – you just had to throw them together and hope for the best.

Steeling herself, Sage added Stanford to her list, than opened an email account. The email account itself would be untraceable, but the contents would be an offering what the recipients loved best, with the transportation to Handler's Corner paid for by her. (Sage was not above "borrowing" money from various online bank accounts when it suited her needs – they were all well-padded with billions in currency, so it was unlikely any of them would notice.) First-class airfare, limos – all would be provided, so long as the replies came as soon as possible.

Satisfied with her formatting, Sage fired them off, and then got down to arranging the aforementioned transportations, booking seats and renting limos from the airport to bring them to the salt flats. All it took was ten minutes of well-spent work, and by the time she was done, all of them – Agura, Zoom, Stanford, and the Cortezes – had leapt at the invitation.

Pleased with herself, Sage attached the tickets for the flight and limo and replied back. They would only bring the essentials – she had intentionally picked flights that would depart within three hours.

She disliked such deceptions, but it was necessary.

Signing off, Sage looked around at the imperfection that was her incomplete Hub, ocular units focusing on her surroundings. She had arranged for Vert's backup; now they needed a place to stay.

**XxX**

Up above, Vert Wheeler – out of the new shocksuit, cleaning volcanic ash off his new car, and marveling over the day's events – started in surprise as his garage lights flickered. It didn't happen like they usually did – dimming and brightening so quickly it was only apparent in hindsight – but instead they remained darker for a minute or so.

"Sage?" he called, trying not to betray his apprehension. The alien woman he had rescued hours earlier had vanished into the back rooms after leaving hibernation mode, but he had to wonder if she was responsible for the lights.

"I am in the lower levels," came her reply, magnified by his stereo speakers. Even that little bolt from the blue couldn't overshadow his confusion at what she had said, though.

"I don't have a lower level."

As he said it, the left wall – the one he had been facing – split open, revealing a space very much like an elevator; the white interior looked like it was illuminated by florescent lights. Sage's voice was very much in understatement as she replied.

"You do now."

**XxX**

-Inferna Firesword


	4. Standoff

**Author's Note: **I dunno where this came from. The events of this shot are during _Ascent of the Red Sentients – Part 2_, which I quote from here, but I guess it could happen anytime during the series if you took out their dialogue and the ending.

**Disclaimer: **If you think I own this franchise, you are sadly mistaken.

Standoff

There were no rules of engagement on this battlefield, where time and space did not exist, save in the minds of the fighters. They had no armies, no infantry, no tangible weapons – yet they were generals in their own private war.

On one half of the field the landscape was calm and serene – deep space embellished with cosmic paint and glitter. Shooting stars flew by nebulas, while asteroids whirled around moons in a celestial waltz. At the center of it all, behind the young warrior that represented it, was a sapphire-blue planet, glowing like the most precious of gems; the epicenter of it all.

The young female who stood just behind her side of the borderline looked across to the other half, where her mortal enemy glared at her. In contrast to the peaceful, orderly appearance behind her, his half was ablaze, the inferno's spark and heart being a planet that was a red twin to her own. Peering into the depths of those flames, she saw destruction, oppression, death, and despair – the very opposite of what she represented.

She was Life. He was Death.

There could be no mercy.

Bracing themselves again non-existing walls before them, energy surging around them like a giga impact, they advanced and retreated, seeking an opening in the other's defenses. One hand was constantly extended towards the other – his was bigger than her slender appendage, but both would carry out the same function if they seized hold on the opponent's body. The power of their psychic bond was great enough that if they touched them, their nemesis would have their nakedest soul exposed, each and every secret they had spilling in their minds.

Once upon a time, they had not played such games – in their innocence, they had shared their thoughts and secrets readily, blissfully ignorant of what the future held in store for them. But as time wore on, making them older and supposedly wiser, leaving childhood behind, they had grown apart, suspicion coloring their minds. Their secrets were no longer the simple things – they had grown more complex alongside them. She had plunged headfirst into the scientific mysteries in Modulon 5, while on the twin planet he had embarked on a crusade of death and debauchery.

Yet even then they had not declared themselves to be true enemies. Only now, when they had become fully-grown Sentients of 21 million years old (in Earth years, at least), with their telepathic link as powerful as it would ever be, had they become the other's worst nightmare, and they could not spare the other mercy.

Not for the first time, she wished for the old days.

"_Leave now!" _she cried into their minds, echoing over untold distances. _"I will not let you cause any more harm!"_

Her twin brother roared a challenge, more Vandal than Sentient, and he pushed forward. She could see the determination, the desire for what she had locked in the depths of her mind, and she braced herself again, calling upon the power she had to keep him at bay just long enough for her friends to gather themselves and finish him in the real Multiverse.

He was overconfident, forgetting that her mind was stronger than her physical form indicated, and his reply stated it baldly. _"Foolish sister! Your compassion for the Humans has doomed all mankind! The coordinates to Earth will be mine!"_

She could not hold him back much longer. While she was the stronger one during these contests, she suffered from lack of practice, and even he had overpowered her at times. Her true body, blankly mirroring what she did in her mind, was ordered to initiate contact with Vert, who was in the Battlezone with her brother.

"Vert!" her true voice cried, echoing in her mind like she knew it would; her brother laughed as he heard her fear. "I must release him! He cannot learn my location!"

"Alright, Sage," he replied, cool as usual under pressure. "Release him … now!"

With the greatest of effort, Sage broke free, shutting down her psychic connection to her brother. His immediate thoughts vanished from her mind, save for one final echo as she sank to the ground, drained: a scream of fury, dying away slowly.

He would come back. The Respawn chambers he had built for his companions would ensure that they would not die until they were destroyed for good. Until then, they could afford to be as reckless with their lives as they desired; they could afford to take the risks her mortal, far more fragile friends could not.

But she knew them, and she knew they would succeed. On her radio feeds, Sage heard the words of her friends, gathering themselves to return home, asking her to remotely modify the Battlekey Agura carried to bring them to the same Zone. Slowly, she rose back up, exhausted from her battle with Krytus – the first of many that were to come.

**XxX**

-Inferna Firesword


End file.
